Leota Lewis doesn’t expect to see a lot of blackberry pies at this year’s Kitsap County Fair.

“The blackberries are already ripe now,” Lewis said in mid-July. She is superintendent of pies for the fair.

“Usually they don’t ripen until mid August. I expect that means fewer blackberry pies, unless they’re made up early and frozen.”

Lewis, a long-time resident of Kitsap County who has been a part of the Kitsap County Fair since the current fairgrounds opened in 1958, has many years of fair experience behind her. She was in charge of open class foods for years, while her husband oversaw the rodeo and helped take care of the fairgrounds.

“We both helped paint the gates and the stands at the rodeo grounds when the fair first moved to the fairgrounds,” she said. “And some of the display cases they still use in President’s Hall are ones that he made.”

This year, Lewis is watching over the pies. On a normal year, about 30 pies are entered in the competition. Besides blackberry, many are apple. There are two judges and they begin setting up the pies and other foods the Sunday before the fair opens.

“The pies are judged on Monday,” Lewis said. “And then we have to re-wrap them for display when the fair opens on Wednesday.”

In past years, when she’s overseen all food categories, she’s spend lots of time during the fair checking on the food displays. “Sometimes, things begin to mold and we have to take care of that,” she said.

There are divisions based on age and ribbons are awarded in each category. Each pie is judged on it’s own merit and not judged against the other pies in the contest, Lewis said.

“The only time the pies are compared are for the Best in Show,” she said.

Sometimes the judges are “celebrity” judges, such as local mayors and county commissioners. Other times, they are experienced judges.

“Back in the day when I judges pies and canned goods, we’d go to judges’ school and we’d take classes from the WSU Extension Services,” she said.

As for strange experiences at the fair, Lewis has had a few.

“Some years, we’d have people stealing cookies and eating them right there on the spot,” she said.

And, back in the day, when her husband worked the rodeo, she learned fast what “heads up” means.

“That means a bull is loose,” Lewis said. “It happened in one of the first years I worked at the fair. You don’t know how fast you can jump in the bed of a pickup until someone yells ‘heads up.’”

This year, what’s now called the Home Arts is being overseen by Linda Moran, a member of the fair board. While she entered her raspberry jam in the fair as a kid, she just joined the fair board two years ago.

With the help of a lot of volunteers, she makes sure all the home arts — quilts, all sorts of sewing, knitting, and crocheting, food, horticulture and photography — are in place, ready to be judged. All, except the food and flowers, begins to be assembled two weeks prior to the fair opening.

“So many of the volunteers have been with the fair for years that everything just falls in to place,” Moran said. “The first year, I just sort of stood back and watched how things happened. Now I feel like I can really contribute.”

Her work includes being at the fair every day from the time it beings to be set up until when it ends. She makes runs to local stores for donuts and buns which are donated for the fair workers daily.

“I even take some over to the rodeo area because those cowboys need to be fed,” she said.

Sometimes she rides a golf cart around the fairgrounds in order to make better time. Every morning of the fair, she meets with other board members who are in charge of other divisions of the fair. They talk about what’s happening that day and if any problems are coming up.

Moran also sets up groups to do demonstrations during the fair. This year, she’s lined up Pacific Fabrics to talk about sewing and the “Knotty Needles,” a group from a retirement home who will demonstrate knitting. A highlight will be the demo of Brazilian embroidery. Weaving will be shown in the sheep barn. And there may be a speed-knitting contest.

In the early years, Lewis and her husband slept in their motor home on the fairgrounds during the fair.

“It was what we did because we always wanted to be there if we were needed,” she said. But now she just drops in when she’s needed. She has a couple of assistants to help her too.

As for Moran, she’s always on alert and carries a note pad with her to keep on top of questions and issues.

“I’m always thinking about the fair,” she said. “But it’s really a well-oiled machine. Fair volunteers are so dedicated.”

Both women admit that, while the fair take a lot of work, a sadness comes over them when it’s Sunday at 6 p.m. and it’s over.

“We just take a long look around,” said Lewis. “And then they start tearing things down.”

Moran added, “It’s like that day-after-Christmas feeling. You’re just running so high for so long and then, nothing.”

But they know, there’s always next year and another Kitsap County Fair.